The Right Administrative Stuff - eBook
The Right Administrative Stuff contains a variety of readings focusing on park, recreation, and tourism administration. The 27 chapters represent the collective thinking of six former academic department chairs, two of whom also served as associate deans, and one of whom also served as a dean. The six authors have over 100 years of administrative experience among them. The content also reflects the perspectives of a handful of other like-minded colleagues who co-authored 15 of the 27 chapters in their original form as standalone articles in a variety of professional journals.
This book complements traditional textbooks by stimulating deeper thinking about administration through provocative readings that challenge the status quo. We believe the book will benefit not only academic administrators, but administrators throughout the field of parks, recreation, and tourism. It is often said that being a department chair is the most challenging administrative position in higher education. Our collective experience confirms that assertion. Piloting programs in parks, recreation, and tourism is more art than science. It requires vision, confidence, determination, perseverance, and an ability to motivate others to move a common agenda forward. While many of the chapters draw from our experience in higher education, we believe the lessons are applicable to park, recreation, and tourism administrators everywhere. Indeed, the need for a stronger bond between colleges and universities and the world of professional practice is a recurring theme throughout the book. To that end, we trust the content will provide readers with fresh insights about what it takes to pilot park, recreation, and tourism programs to success fueled by the right administrative stuff.
PART I: TAKING THE CONTROLS
1 The Right Administrative Stuff
2 Academic Moneyball
3 Team of Rivals: Turning Academic Rivals into Academic Teammates
4 Toward a More Perfect Academic World: The Prospects for Differentiated
Workloads
PART II: ATTENDING TO THE “PASSENGERS”
5 Managing Academic Messes
6 Faculty Perceptions of Tenure in Parks, Recreation and Tourism
7 The Neoliberal Assault on the Public University: The Case of Recreation, Park,
and Leisure Research
8 Life at Mission Creep University
9 Crossing the Rubicon: The Responsibility of Professors and Park and
Recreation Professionals in Public Discourse
PART III: CHARTING A COURSE
10 Strengthening the Relationship between Undergraduate Professional
Preparation Programs in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism and Graduate
Leisure Studies
11 Service First: Embracing the Scholarship on Teaching and Learning
through Active Engagement in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Education
12 Pasteur’s Quadrant: A Conceptual Framework for Bridging the “Great Divide”
between Higher Education and Professional Practice in Parks, Recreation,
and Tourism
13 Tripping and Falling into the Future: An Eolithic Perspective
14 The Future of Leisure Studies in Research Universities: Administrators’
Perspectives
PART IV: ADMINISTRATIVE TURBULENCE
15 Consider the Kirtland’s Warbler
16 Bridging the Sport and Recreation Divide
17 Whatever Became of Child’s Play?
18 Thinking Outside the Box: Placing Park and Recreation Professionals
in K-12 Schools
19 Changing Reality: Reinventing Physical Education in the Public Schools
20 You Say “Recreational Therapy” and We Say “Therapeutic Recreation”
PART V: PREPARATION FOR LANDING
21 The Promise of a Park, Recreation, and Tourism Education in a
Participatory Democracy
22 Mending Freedom’s Fractured Meaning: Implications for Parks,
Recreation, and Tourism
23 Framing Controversial Issues in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism
24 An Ounce of Prevention
25 Purveyors of One Health: The Ecological Imperative Driving the
Future of Leisure Services
26 Travel Hopefully: On the Obvious and Not So Obvious Dividends
from Professional Investments
27 Ruminations on the Academic Afterlife